A Traitor in Strange Land
by TheOtakuAlchemist
Summary: Ichigo and co. are returning Nel to Hueco Mundo when a freak storm happens and they get run over by a car with no driver. The car takes them to a totally different world where people can make things by drawing strange symbols. accidentally combined ch 1 and 2. Chapter 3 coming soon, HOORAY!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Ichigo's POV.**

I yawned and sat up, listening, were was my dad? He should be in here trying to give me a good morning punch or something by now. Then I took a closer look at "my" room. Which was not my room at all! I was sleeping in what looked like a really, _really_ old fashioned hotel room. For a second I was nonplused, and then the events of last night came rushing back to me.

….

We had been traveling in a group, me, Renji, Rukia, Orihime, Kon, Toshiro, Ishida, Chad, and for some reason, Nel, who had landed on my head screaming something about an arrancar birthday party she hadn't been invited to, which really confused me, arrancars had birthdays? And not only that but they celebrated them? Anyways, we had been going to Urahara's shop to get Nel back to Hueco Mundo (Renji, Rukia, and Toshiro were in their gigai), when out of nowhere, a really old fashioned looking car crashed into me and Renji and Nel (who had been riding on my shoulders), and we got knocked into Rukia and Ishida and then it was kind of the dominoes effect, until Chad was the only one still standing. I got up and winced, I think a few of my ribs had been broken. But more important was the fact that when I looked in the car, there was no one there. And there was not even a trace of reiatsu in the car, even when Ishida tried to detect it. Kon started raving about a ghost but we just ignored him, ghosts have reiatsu too. We were just about to continue on our way to Urahara's shop when the weather started doing what it had been threatening to do all day, it started to rain. Not just ordinary rain, this was more of a hurricane than anything – minus the gale force winds – and we were all drenched within seconds, and there was no shelter nearby, so we all thought: "what the hell…" and just piled into the car were it was dry and surprisingly warm. Of course it was amazingly cramped, but the front seat was a bench seat as well, so that helped a little. But as soon as Chad closed the door there was a flash of blue light and we were all thrown backwards and knocked unconscious.

When we came to, we were still in the old car, but I'm pretty sure we were not in Japan any more. We were parked in front of a really neat looking yellow house. We looked at each other and then kon brought up a very valid point. "Does anybody have any money?" and of course, we didn't. I mentally slapped myself, generally, unless I was in my shinigami form, I didn't go anywhere without my wallet, but since it had only been a trip to Urahara's shop, I had thought that I wouldn't need it. I got out of the car (with some difficulty, because that car was made to fit six, but we had eight, and Chad counts for two people, since he's so big) and of course, Nel couldn't let me go alone, so she hopped out and clung to my shoulder. I looked around and all I could see was field after field, with a bunch of flocks of sheep and a couple of farm houses. I took a deep breath, walked up to the front door and knocked. A little old lady with a ridiculously pointy pony tail answered. And when I say little, I mean _tiny! _She was no bigger than Nel! "Excuse me, ma'am," I said "I and my friends –"I gestured to the car"—are a little lost, and we were wondering if you could point us in the direction of the nearest inn?"

"Well, you must be lost; if you don't know that the only inn around here is on the road that leads here!" She chuckled.

So I thanked her and went back to the car and repeated the information, but before the door closed all the way, I thought I saw a short boy that might have been around my age with long golden hair to match his golden eyes and what looked like a metal arm. For some reason, the sight unnerved me I looked back at his face and for a second our eyes met his eyes seemed to hold far too much anger and sadness for one his age, and for a second I felt like I knew his face, but then the feeling was gone, and Nel was telling me to open the car door. I obliged and Nel crawled back into the car and I followed her. I then drove us to the inn the little old lady told me about and after agreeing with the innkeeper to work off the money we owed for the rooms, He let us stay, which was where we are now.

"Hey Ichigo, it's your turn to use the shower!" Renji said as he walked into the room we shared, clad in only a towel. "Okay." I stood up and grabbed a towel of my own, then headed towards the bathroom.

As soon as I was clean and _fully _dressed (cough, _Renji_, cough cough) I left the bathroom. As I was coming back out of my room, I bumped into Rukia. "Oh! Ichigo, the innkeeper has informed me that we will be working in shifts of two hours. Starting with me and Inoue-san, and Nel-chan does not have to work. Then it will be you and Sado-kun and then Ishida-kun and Renji. Let's hope Renji doesn't screw up too badly!" I chuckled. "What about Toshiro?"

"The innkeeper was willing to let him not work but Captain Hitsugaya refused and is going to be alternating with Inoue-san."

"It's probably a good idea to keep Inoue out of the kitchen as much as possible, her cooking tendencies lean towards…_abstract_, if you get my drift."

"Hahaha! I guess that's true."

**Ed's POV.**

Our dinner was interrupted by a loud bang and a blue flash. I jumped up and walked over to the window and was confused by what I saw. Why was Colonel Mustang here? Or, it was his car at least… but when I looked at the windows, I saw the silhouettes of eight people and some odd round spiky thing that kept jumping about and seemed to annoy the people in the car very much. After a minute or two a door opened and a tall (grrrrrr) boy with spiky orange hair half fell- half stepped out of the car. There was a green blur and then a young girl with curly green hair appeared on his shoulder. She had an odd white mask on the crown of her head that I only caught a glimpse of before the boy said something to her and she put the hood of her green robe/dress up to cover it. The boy looked around with a very confused expression on his face and then started towards the house. A few seconds later we heard him knocking at our door and Granny Pinako answered it. He exchanged a few words with her and then left. As Granny closed the door, I thought he saw me in the hallway, and for a second, our eyes met and I saw anger, not a righteous anger that comes from injustice, more like a kind of evil and untamed anger. But the strangest thing was, the anger didn't seem to come from the boy, it was as if there was something inside of him that was part of him and not part of him that was trying to gain control. But apart from the evil was a desire to protect and grow stronger. Even so, though I am loathe to admit it, those eyes scare me.

**Chapter 2**

**Mustang's POV.**

I awoke with a blue flash. Confused, I looked around; Riza was standing next to me wearing the same confused expression I had no doubt was mirrored on my face. The last thing I remember is falling asleep in the back of the car that Riza was driving. I shrugged and walked up to the door of the sweet shop, taking in the odd design, and knocked. A boy with fire engine red hair and pants rolled up to just below his knee answered. "Waddaya want weirdo?" He asked, looking me up and down.

"Jinta-kun! Don't scare away the customers!" Called a voice from the depths of the store.

"Well, look at him, _nobody _dresses like that!" The boy called back. Hawkeye stepped out from behind me.

"Now there's two of them!" The boy yelped. "And one of 'em has some _serious_ reiatsu! Like, Captain-class!"

_Reiatsu? Captain-class? Huh?_ I was lost. Were they speaking in code? A second later a man appeared. If I was oddly dressed then this man was a clown. He wore a green and white stripped hat that shaded his eyes and covered most of his sandy blonde hair, as well as an odd green thing that looked like a cloak, but was too short, and too long to be a regular coat. Underneath that he was wearing what looked like a cross between a tunic and a bathrobe paired with short pants, both tunic and pants were a rather odd shade of green, and sandals that I had seen in Xing on one of my assignments. I believe they were called ghetto sandals. Oh that's it! "Sir, are we in Xing?" I asked.

"Xing?" He said, "Where's Xing? Never heard of it. No, you're in Japan."

"Japan? What's Japan? A religion?" I asked non-plussed.

"No, you idiot!" snapped the boy with red hair. "It's the country we're in right now!"

"Jinta-kun, be nice." Chided the man. "They're obviously confused and in the wrong place. Now ma'am," He turned to Riza, "I'm going to have to ask you to tone down your reiatsu, unless you want to attract hollows."

I have never seen Riza at such a loss of what to do.

…

"Sir," said Riza, "What is reiatsu? What are hollows? And, forgive me for being rude, but, how the hell am I supposed to _control_ the reiatsu? Is it even mine?"

"Well, reiatsu is spirit force – like, how strong your spirit is – and yes the reiatsu I asked you to tone down is indeed, yours. And many people have reiatsu in varying degrees of power. But some people have no reiatsu whatsoever and therefore, cannot see anything spirit-like, like hollows and Shinigami and such. There are two types of spirits, there are the good, pure ones, called Plus and there are the ones that have lost their hearts. Those are Hollows. Hollows eat Plus spirits and sometimes (though it is rare indeed) they will eat other hollows. I see that you are wondering what a shinigami is. A Shinigami is a Death God. They have two jobs. The first is to send Plus spirits to a place called the soul society – you know it as heaven – their second job is to 'kill' Hollows. When a Shinigami 'kills' a hollow, that hollow is purified and sent to the soul society as well. But! If a Hollow begins to eat other Hollows, it will grow in strength until it becomes a Gillian. Gillian is the only level of Hollow that all look the same. Gillian are rather slow and have no mind of their own, but sometimes, a hollow will retain its identity in a Gillian and that Gillian will look slightly different, it will also begin to eat other Gillian, eventually once a Gillian has eaten enough of its kin, it will grow stronger and turn into and Adjuchas. Adjuchas are all different looking and they can also control the Gillian or Menos Grande. Again, if an Adjuchas eats enough of its kin it will grow stronger and obtain a human like form. These Hollow are called Vasto Lorde and are extremely rare and extremely powerful. Now, how about some tea?"

Riza and I looked at each other utterly bemused. Suddenly we heard an awful roaring from outside of the shop. "What was that?!" I asked sharply.

"Just a Hollow," Answered the man. "Nothing to worry about! Jinta-kun! Go deal with the hollow please!"

"Why is it always me?!" The boy – Jinta-kun – yelled. "Make Ururu do it!"

"Ururu-chan's cleaning."

"Pah!"

"Jintaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" A large, tan, muscular with braids and a weird mustache who reminded me a lot of Major Armstrong barreled past us.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh! All right! All right! I'll do it!" Jinta yelled, sprinting out the door. A second later there was an awful sound that sounded like a cross between a roar and a scream, a yell of "Jinta Home Run!" and I assumed that the hollow was gone because not soon after, the boy came back in.

"Jinta- kuuuuuuun! " The sandy haired man called, "Go get us some tea!" I sighed, this man was a lot like lieutenant colo – no, brigadier general Hughes.

**Nel's POV.**

"Itsygooooooo!" I whined, "I'm bored!"

"Well, unless you want to read one of these books, I'm afraid I can't help you." Itsygo was sitting on his bed, reading. I was jumping on Red Pineapple's bed, but was bored anyways. I wished Peshe and Dondo-Chakka where here. Oh, and Bawabawa too. But they weren't so I was bored.

"I wanna play never ending tag!" I said, jumping over to Itsygo's bed and landing on his shoulders.

"No. There isn't enough time or space."

"But Itsygo!" I cried, flopping onto my back and waving my arms and legs around.

"No." I mustered up some tears.

"Aw Nel, don't cry! Tell you what, tonight after everybody's shifts are done I'll see if Rukia and them want to join. Then we can have a giant game out in the back! How's that sound?"

"But I wanna play never ending tag right _now_!" I exclaimed, annoyed, why didn't Itsygo see that?

"I'm sorry Nel, but we can't!" Itsygo said. I huffed.

"Fine! Then I'm gonna go find someone else to play with!" I exclaimed, sliding from the bed to the floor. On y way out of the room, I bumped into Red Pineapple. "Oh hey Nel," He said. "Whatcha doing?"

"I'm off to go find some new people to play never ending tag with! Because Itsygo is being a party pooper and won't play with me!"

"Uh-oh!" Said Red Pineapple, laughing. Why was he laughing? Was he laughing at me? "Sounds like a serious problem! Who knew _Itsygo _could be such a downer?" I figured out who Red Pineapple was laughing at. He was laughing at Itsygo. Well, serves him right! I slipped past Red Pineapple and out of the room. On my way out I heard the Red Pineapple snicker at Itsygo. "_Itsygo?_" I giggled to myself.

…

"Awwwww! None of these people look good enough to play never ending tag with me!" I sighed. I had been standing on the side of the street for an hour and a half, watching the people go by, looking for someone to play never ending tag with me.

Suddenly I felt the sudden appearance of a thousand presences behind me. But it was odd, they were all in one location. And that location was emitting reiatsu higher than any I had ever felt. Ever so slowly I turned around.

Behind me stood a woman with long curly black hair and a sleeveless dress that displayed a strange red tattoo just below where her collar bones met. I looked like a dragon eating its own tail. "I will play never ending tag with you little one." She said in a very kind voice.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaay!" Finally someone who would play with me! I jumped up and down. When I felt another of those high reiatsu presences behind me. I looked behind me and saw a young man with black hair and an odd outfit that displayed his midriff. "Oh!" I said happily, "Is the black jelly fish going to play with us?"

"_What did you call me?!_" He said, looming over me with a vein throbbing in his temple. "C'mon Lust, let's just take her and be done with it!" Huh? So we weren't gonna play never ending tag? Oh well. I started walking away.

"Where do you think you're going, you little runt?" said the man, grabbing the back of my robe. That's when I knew something was wrong and I started struggling. But the black jellyfish man would not let me go. I started screaming but as soon as I did he clamped a hand over my mouth and dragged me into an alley way.

"Lust." He said. She handed him a bag and he shoved me into it. A sickly sweet scent pervaded my nose and the last thought I had before losing consciousness was: _Help me, Itsygo!_


	2. Chapter 2

I'm sorry I haven't published for so long! I have had a busy schedule. But finally, here is chapter three, I hope you enjoy!  
Chapter 3  
Renji's POV. (The red pineapple)  
"Renji! Renji! Wake up! Nel's gone!" I opened my eyes blearily and stared into Rukia's strikes face. "C'mon Renji! Wake up!" She shook me again and I sat up.  
"Alright, alright all ready! I'm awake! What was it you were saying?" I looked across the room at Ichigo, who was already awake and dressed, though he was staring blankly at the wall. You would think Nel was one of his sisters. "Nel's gone missing! She left this afternoon looking for someone to play tag with, and when Orihime went to bed Nel still wasn't back and now it's morning and she's still gone!"  
"Well," I said, unconcerned. "She did say she wanted to play never ending tag."  
"I know, but she's gotta sleep eventually."  
"She probably went to sleep where she was so she could start up again in the morning, the moment she woke up."  
"But shouldn't we at least look for her?"  
"I guess, but mark my words, we're gonna find her playing her never ending tag with some poor shmuck she picked up on the street. I guess we can always search, though."  
"Why am I being granted permission? If anything, we should ask Captain Hitsugaya, seeing as he is the highest ranking person among us."  
"Hey, I am a lieutenant." I said, a little hurt. "But I suppose that we should ask him anyways..."  
"That will be unnecessary." Said a voice from the door. We all jumped and looked around. There stood Captain Hitsugaya, arms crossed, with Inoue, Sado, and Ishida behind him, all fully dressed as well. Evidentially he had heard everything from Inoue. "We tried to negotiate with the innkeeper, but we must all work our shifts. So as of right now, Kurosaki and Yatsutora will be staying behind." Captain Hitsugaya gave Ichigo as close as he comes to a sympathetic look. Ichigo didn't notice, he jumped up saying: "WHAT!? You expect me to stay behind while you guys go out and look for my friend!? Are you kidding me!?" It occurred to me that perhaps he was feeling responsible for Nel's disappearance. Suddenly, I had an idea.  
"Kon!" I jumped up, pointing at Ichigo. Ichigo gave me an incredulous look.  
"I'm Ichigo, dipshit." And then a look of comprehension crossed his face. "You're right!...Where is he?" Now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen the stuffed lion anywhere lately. The last place I remember seeing him in was in the car we arrived in. I vaguely remembered something to do with a glove box.  
"Oh jeez, now we have to search for two people?" Ishida exclaimed.  
"No...wait a second, I think I know we're Kon is." I said jamming my feet into my shoes and hurrying out the door. I walked over to the car and opened the door. After a couple of seconds, I managed to open the glove box, and sure enough, there was Kon, jammed in there with a pair of white gloves. I grabbed his head and started the extraction process, in which Kon nearly lost his ears. Then I hurried back to my room. "Here he is." I said, holding him up. He struggled to release himself, but seeing as he's a stuffed animal, he didn't succeed. Then he spotted Rukia, sitting on my bed. "Nee-san!" He cried. "Pineapple head shoved me in the glove box! How can you be friends with such a cruel person?"  
"Shut up!" I snapped and shoved my hand in his mouth, grasped for the mod soul pill. I grabbed it and pulled it out, and the stuffed lion went limp. I handed the pill to Ichigo and he popped it in his mouth. As he swallowed, his spirit form slid out of his body and stood up behind it, which was now inhabited by Kon. Who blinked and then continued his tirade against me.  
"Hey Kon." Ichigo said, trying to get the mod souls attention. Kon pretended not to hear him. Ichigo tapped him on the shoulder and was once again ignored. He huffed and waved his hand in "Kon's" face. Kon turned his head away. Finally, Ichigo grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around, and punched him in the cheek. Kon winced, even though the punch hadn't been very hard. Kon frowned and feigned confusion. "What was that for?" He asked, rubbing his cheek. Ichigo looked like he was about to punch Kon again out of pure annoyance, but Rukia intervened.  
"Kon," She said sweetly. "We need you to take Ichigo's place."  
"We'll that much is obvious." He huffed.  
"We need you to work in the kitchen for a couple hours, while Ichigo goes to look for Nel."  
"I hope you know, I have never cooked a meal in my life."  
"Well," said Captain Hitsugaya. "If you do what you're told, you should be fine."  
Kon harrumphed and crossed his arms. "Come on Kon," Coaxed Rukia. "It's just two hours!"  
"We'll, if I must...it is only two hours, after all. Right, Nee-san?" He conceded.  
"Right!" Said Rukia. I am forever amazed by her ability to keep Kon in check.  
Orihime's POV.  
"All right! Let's split up into groups of two! We'll find her faster that way." Ordered Captain Hitsugaya. "Kurosaki, go with Inoue. Abarai and Ishida. And I, will go with Kuchiki."  
I winced in sympathy for Abarai-kun, Ishida-kun hates Shinigami, although he seems to get along better with Abarai-kun after the trip to Hueco Mundo to save me ー I shuddered at the memory of that place. No! I mustn't think of that now!  
"Inoue?" I blinked and saw Kurosaki-kun looking at me with concern, he'd been doing that a lot after coming back from Hueco Mundo. He must know something about how much that scarred me ー even though I try not to let it show.  
"Are you all right?" Asked Kurosaki-kun. I nodded and looked around. Everyone else had left to go search for Nel. I must have been really out of it to not notice that.  
"I'm fine, rarin' to go!" I said, and slapped my forhead, trying to physically banish the bad memories. Kurosaki-kun gave me an odd look and then said, "Well, why don't we start by asking around to see if anyone has seen Nel." I nodded and together we started walking towards the nearest house, which was quite a ways away.  
When we got to the house, Kurosaki-kun stepped up to the door and was about to nock when the door swung open to reveal a short golden haired boy who looked to be about our age, whom Kurosaki-kun nearly punched in the face. The boy was speaking over his shoulder to a girl with long pale blonde hair, wearing a violet jumpsuit type thing. She widened her eyes at me (She couldn't see Kurosaki-kun because he was in soul reaper form) and the boy turned around, he looked startled for a second. His eyes scanned over me and then over Kurosaki-kun. Wait - over Kurosaki-kun? He could see him?! I looked over at Kurosaki-kun and was met by an equally stunned expression. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the blonde girl retreat to another room.  
"What is it? What do you want?" Asked the boy, calling our attention back to him.  
"Wait, you can see me?" Asked Kurosaki-kun, waving his hand in front of the boys face. The boy frowned at him. "Of coarse I can see you, I'm not blind." The boy started looking confused, so I jumped in.  
"Anyways, have you seen a little girl with short green hair and green eyes around here anywhere? She was traveling with us and last night, she disappeared, and we can't find her anywhere."  
"Is there anything special about her?" Asked the boy.  
"you mean besides the fact that she's an Arrancar?" Asked Kurosaki-kun.  
"A what?"  
"Nothing. Let's just say that she's very special, very powerful too."  
"In that case, I know where she is." Said the boy, looking grim.  
"And where is that?" I asked, having a feeling I didn't want to know.  
"the lair of the Homunculi, come with me."


End file.
